I have several parental talents, but one talent I do not have is discretion when it comes to discussing world events with my 8 year-old. This is why if you had visited our household a month or so ago you might have heard Owen holding forth in an impassioned harangue against Italians. Wait, what? Sean came to me and asked me why Owen was trash-talking Italians, and I had to think long and hard before I figured out that Owen did not mean Italians, but the Taliban! Oops. Once that little misunderstanding was cleared up, I expected Sean to be impressed by Owen’s list of all the Taliban was doing wrong, but he was more horrified that I would even discuss it with him in the first place.
I tried to explain that we had started talking about why we used to dislike George W. Bush, but Trump made him seem not as bad, but then there was the needless war in Iraq thanks to W’s daddy issues, and then we were on to Afghanistan and how our Iraq war made things even more precarious in that country because our resources were split, and then we ended up talking about Osama Bin Laden and the twin towers, and oh dear, might you want to hear Owen’s Ted Talk about the detriments of sharia law?
Perhaps not. Owen can also tell you all about how in this household we firmly believe women have the right to make all the decisions about their bodies, and are not wedded to the color pink, and although women are of course equal in intelligence to men, it is still sometimes the right thing to hold open a door for one, or offer up one’s seat on a train. The world can always use another chivalrous feminist.
In this reality-challenged political age, though, it is hard to present our country’s potential in a positive light. I want Owen to feel like it is worth working to make this country a better place, while at the same time not minimizing how precarious I believe the last four years have been. I want him to know the difference between truth and lies, fact and (no, not fiction) lies, while also being sensitive to nuance and subtext.
It is much harder than it used to be. Add covid to this and throw in the fact that some people are able to rationalize away a horrifying death count and it becomes clear why one of my most used expressions these days is “it is hard to explain.” In the meantime I do my best to minimize the bogeymen and make sure to pass along all the myriad ways the light still shines bright.
